1st Grade December 2024 Newsletter

The month of November flew by! This past month was busy for the staff and students as we came to the end of the 1st marking period and started the 2nd marking period.

We hope that you have had the opportunity to meet with your child's teacher and have a good idea of how your child is doing with their school progress. If you have not been able to schedule a conference or need to reschedule, please contact your child's teacher as soon as possible. We would love to meet with all parents.

First grade students will soon begin a Culture Project poster in Social Studies. Please review the letter and organizer sent home and send in to school by Friday, December 13th.

We hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving holiday! We are excited for all the learning ahead before our next break at the end of December!

Sincerely,

The Dr. REMES First Grade Team

Tuesday, December 3rd: PTA General Meeting

Wednesday, December 4th: 8:30am-9:00am Student Only Interest Meeting in the gym for the Talent Show

Tuesday, December 10th & Wednesday, December 11th: Hearing and Vision Screenings

Wednesday, December 11th: PTA Spirit Night at Red Robin

Friday, December 13th: Send in completed Culture Project organizer and pictures.

Monday, December 23rd - Wednesday, January 1st: Winter Break - no school for students and staff

In Skills 3, students will learn 5 new vowel sounds:

• /oo/ as in soon
• /oo/ as in look
• /ou/ as in shout
• /oi/ as in oil
• /aw/ as in paw

Like in our past Skills units, we have a new decodable reader that will build upon the skills we have already learned as well as incorporate the new vowel sounds and spellings listed above. Students are moving into writing more than a sentence in their responses to reading and building up to a paragraph, so continuing to work on sentence conventions in class and at home is important.

We also will begin spelling tests this unit. Please practice the spelling words that are sent home each week with your child to help build their spelling confidence.

In the first two parts of Knowledge 4: Early World Civilizations, the concept of religion in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt is introduced as one of the forces shaping those civilizations. The end of this domain provides a historical development of three world religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Throughout this domain, students will focus on informational writing. They will compare key components, create timelines, and collaborate with their peers to write about what they learned.

We will continue Module 2 throughout the month of December. We will focus on adding and subtracting within 20 and demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. This module also introduces students to the unit ten. Students use the structure of the ten to add within the teens, to add to the teens, and to subtract from the teens.

In December, we will be focusing on history where we will examine differences between past and present, and compare and contrast things/people from past and present time. We will also be focusing on culture and learning about different customs and traditions of people around the world. Based on this learning, we will create our Culture Project Posters to share our own culture's with the rest of the first graders.

Students will continue working on Learning to Lead Self. They will be able to develop a personal mission statement that reflects qualities and goals that matter most to them. They will then be able to practice using their personal mission statements to make good choices for themselves and others. Students will also be able to develop a list of their priorities and describe Big Rocks. They will be able to describe how their priorities can help them make positive decisions at home and school.

• Continue tying shoes. Students are really improving!
• Incorporate addition and subtraction story problems into everyday activities! For example, if making cookies, practice adding to find the total. Or if eating the cookies, practice a subtraction problem to find out how many are left.
• Practice reading and writing. Students can write a fun, creative winter story and draw a picture for the beginning, middle, and end. Remember to include capital letters, finger spaces, and punctuation!
• Also, think of trying out the comprehension questions that were sent home after Parent-Teacher Conferences!

The first graders will be learning about traditions and culture in social studies and we will discuss what traditions each family has. Check out the traditions of the first grade teachers! They might be similar to or different from traditions with your family.